For the past many months since 5.0’s release we’ve been hard at work behind the scenes preparing what is coming next for GE:S.

Moving forward we would like to be more open and keep the community more up to date with what we are doing, and first off we are happy to announce and show a little preview of two of the maps we are presently working on.

New Maps

CitadelWe would like to introduce you to a level that is not that well known. ‘Citadel’ was a test level found on the original game’s ROM by using a GameShark on the GoldenEye cartridge. In the past there have been community versions of this map, but the level is now being incorporated into the game and given the full treatment.

(http://i.imgur.com/uUxA92P.jpg)

TempleI would never choose the caves! The temple, maybe.

Temple is a map that has long been absent from GoldenEye: Source. Whilst there have been various versions in development over the years it has never quite made it all the way to completion. The map has now been completely reenvisioned and given it’s own unique theme.

(https://i.imgur.com/04wayJV.jpg)

Music

With two new levels there might have been a gap in our Soundtrack. Never fear! Tweaklab has been hard at work and would like to debut some of his awesome beats.

“I wanted to take the Citadel track from the original game that was only used in multiplayer matches and make it feel a bit more tailored to a specific map, keeping the original tempo while adding more layers to the track to give it a greater sense of progression and ambience.”

Temple didn’t have it’s own track in the original game, so to accompany the new map Tweaklab has created an original track inspired by the soundtrack of the original game and the atmosphere of the new map.

“I was encouraged by the team to have a go at writing an original track for the game and it all started with the main chord progression which utilizes a few familiar notes from the traditional Bond theme, everything else evolved fairly naturally from there. I wrote the track with the idea that it was almost like a remix of an original N64 track that no one had ever heard before and there are lots of cool ominous sounds like pan flutes and monk choirs in the mix to keep the atmosphere front and center while the beat drives the track.” - Tweaklab

Weapon Effects

Moving forward with our initiative of improving the way that weapons feel and act in the game, each weapon now has an increased number of sound effects associated with it. Pistols, Rifles, Mines, Shotguns, Rockets and so on now have distinct pickup, ammo and reload sounds for each type.

Building on our adjustment of their ammunition types, the Gold and Silver PP7s now have distinct firing sounds to help distinguish them both from each-other and the standard issue PP7.

The soundscape of the game is now more satisfying and delivers much better audible feedback on what is happening.

Improving User Experience

One of our big goals with the upcoming 5.1 is to greatly improve the experience players have when playing the game. 5.0 was a huge milestone and step up in the quality of the mod from past versions but we still see great room for improvement when it comes to making the game feel more intuitive and enjoyable. Certain lingering issues in the gameplay were made apparent by 5.0’s release which we’re working towards fixing, including changing a few Source engine defaults that fell outside of the design of our game and went under our radar.

The main one is of course the maximum server player count, which can be set as high as 32. However, GE:S was never designed to accommodate this number, and having such a large amount of players on one server causes several problems that result in a poor gameplay experience. As such, for 5.1 this will be capped to a more reasonable 16 players. We hope everybody can understand that we want players to have the best experience of the game possible.

PSA: Please keep this in mind if you’re running a server as 16 will be the maximum number of player slots supported once GoldenEye: Source 5.1 releases.

Thank You

We would like to thank the community for their amazing support following the release of 5.0. We’ve been blown away by how much the game has grown and all of the positive attention we’ve received around the web.

In case you missed it we recently had an interview with PC Gamer, you can find it here:http://www.pcgamer.com/the-creation-and-tireless-evolution-of-the-goldeneye-source-mod/

Streaming GoldenEye: SourceIf you’re a YouTube or Twitch streamer and would like to stream GoldenEye: Source, please do! Our original soundtrack will not get your content flagged. Please contact us if you do have any issues.

We’re Looking For DevelopersAs a team that is always growing and adapting we would like to remind everybody that we are always looking for new talent. Please check our open positions (https://www.geshl2.com/join-us/) page if you’re interested in getting involved and helping us to create this game.

This is all phenomenal news - great to hear, and can't wait to enjoy all of these new maps, features, and improvements!

As someone who was aware of this project for many years - but atrociously never got around to downloading and experiencing it since 5.0 was released last summer - the simple fact that the game is so constantly being improved upon and tweaked is truly amazing to me. Thank you to all of the team members who dedicate so much time to this project! As someone who has been playing the N64 version continuously since it came out and who participates in The-Elite speed-running community, for me, the fact that this mod is so vibrant, active, fun, and true to the original just truly completes the GoldenEye 007 experience... it's just great!

In particular, I love Tweaklab's new songs - the "Citadel" song, which as we all know in N64 would play often in Multiplayer, was one of my favorites as a kid, and still is today. In fact, the original track immediately found its way into my playlists for Library/Stacks/Basement and Complex last summer. The new version of this song hits all the right notes and is a superb addition, and will certainly be finding its way into my rotation soon!

Thank you again so much to this team for your amazing work - I can't wait to try these new features out!

The new 16 player limit certainly isn't set in stone, we just want to make sure that we have a way to make sure people understand that 12-16 is supposed to be the standard before setting it higher. Before 4.2 we didn't seem to have this issue, but a lot of groups in 5.0 seemed to assume bigger was better and went all the way to 32. Certain systems start breaking at 24+, though that's fixable, and the viable map selection becomes rather limited for anything past 16. Not even Aztec comfortably hosts 32 people on any configuration. That being said there are totally viable 20-24 man server configurations, like teamplay on the biggest maps as you said, but we didn't see nearly as much of that as we did 32 man basement classic with everyone complaining about the spawning system.

So, hopefully once we figure out how to better regulate that we can go up to at least 20, if not 24. It's certainly a niche, since nearly all maps are designed for <16 players, but it does feel kind of bad to bar that option entirely for people who want to use setups that actually benefit from the higher playercount. Might have to be a project for 5.2 though.

That's great to hear! This mod has such a bright future... which can't really be said about too many video game projects that are this old and are dying out/hanging on by a thread (well, except maybe StarCraft... since that's getting a do-over this summer and is as old as the original GE64)!

This is all awesome news, been having a lot of fun playing GoldenEye: Source, so I look forward to all the new content and the awesome job you guys are doing at keeping this going. The new levels seem like they will add a lot more fun to the game, I can't wait to try them out when 5.1 is released. Thanks for all the awesome hours of game play so far haha ;D

It's amazing you guys are still coming out with updates after all these years. I've been playing since 3.0. There is one thing I would like brought back or at least tweaked that was removed from 5.0 and that's the invulnerability aspect. 5.0 looks great but something was changed that just doesn't feel right. I think this may be why you don't see a lot of the old school players anymore. I know new players blamed the hit registration when it was really the invulnerability, which was in the original game, but once you learned how it worked it made the game more fun in my opinion. Maybe I'm alone here but there's my two cents. Keep up the good work guys!

Well, first let's get that out of the way: Let's roll the dice now. Citadel will be in Peru, Chile, Colombia, Nicaragua or Mexico? I know for certainty that it isn't in Brazil >.>

OK, got the macaw off the room, now to the rest of the review. Temple looks more baroque and, really, it has a nice and unique charm. I really liked it. As for Citadel, it remembers me of Aztec. I don't know if that's "meh" or good in having kind of the same formula, but with lots of differentiations and, inderectly, giving the thought that both maps are connected (same thought that you guys gave on Runway/Facility/Dam and Caverns/Caves).

As for the music, I liked Temple, giving not only a new look on JB's theme and GE007's musics, but also giving a feel to the map. However that makes me think: That it will be a theme set in stone in which others will make a remix of it, or they can create others as well?

And Citadel... Sorry, Tweaklab, but you finally made a music (for me) that looks "meh" (neutral; okay; not good, but not bad either). I'm just gonna say that it was gonna happen sooner or later. Don't crash down upon that! I know you can make it better! :D

(Post-scriptum: No, it wasn't the cybernetic way contrasting with what Citadel is being now... Okay, kind of; But it didn't marked me. Just that... Can't say no more...)

As for the 16-player limit... I don't know about this, since it's fine for me having less people, but I can't be a point of reference. My computer lag in Minesweeper. HEAVENLY MINESW- It's embarrassing... Having 16 instead of 32 kind of opens the possibility to me to walk in the map without luck-guessing if I'm gonna hit a wall or not and that gives the possibility as well to other people use other servers instead of piling up at Mr. Blonde's only because there's people there (come on... let's be serious... I have nothing against LTK, except where I can only play that because the other option is Arsenal – that I played a lot too – and, sometimes, a random Deathmatch server that pops up out of nowhere with a high ping... but that's things in life). Normally I don't vote for yay or nay because of other people (I won't kick people to the abyss just for me to gain something... so to speak), and this isn't a exception.

...now for the question that some people thinks: Where's Frigate? What happened to it? You didn't just 'forget' lines and files depicting Frigate to be a possible upcoming map...

I was disappointed to see that there was a 16 ppl limit in 5.1.... Super bummed out, in fact. I'd like to see 20-24 as the limit. I would think that would be a bit more reasonable. I came on after 5.0 was released but was enamored with the huge, crazy fights with 20+ players. I never would play on the android server that has 28-32 players, because it is just stupid most of the time. But the ones with 16-24 players, like team arsenal or Turbo LTK, seem to be the funnest matches, for me. I love just jumping around and killing 3-4 ppl at the same time... Certain large maps, IMO, are designed for 16+ players and team play games will suffer with the 16 player cap. I would hope you guys change your mind and up the cap to at least 20. Please...

Calm down, man. It's still in thought phase. As they said before, it's not set in stone for now, so things can be manageable and flexible. For now, two people (including you) said "cap to 24 instead of 16" and I absented myself of the 'voting' (I don't know if that's considered voting so... yeah...), because my PC is trash and I believe he already has problems when I enter a non-local server, let alone have someone in the same server. :/-

I have actually been wanting it to be a dynamic maximum since beta. But the issue is people would get kicked, and thats not cool. (yes, we do have a mechanic to stay on larger maps so that wouldn't happen) We did play with other ways to handle smaller groups on larger maps by "closing" doors and actually making the play area small. It would then increase once enough players were on the server.

To say the least we are very innovative for a team just remaking an old game...(I am the reason why in paintball mode the explosions leave a multi-coloured blast mark)

The current rotation system only picks maps suitable for the current number of players and E-S's voting plugin works the same way. The problem is that GE:S was not designed for more than 16 players, and most maps work best with around 12. When you add more and more players, the number of suitable maps goes down. When you go above 16, nothing works well. Add many more and things start to break.

Trolling aside, we are always working away. Sometime we just have a phase where there are no visual improvements to show off. So silence is more common than us just saying "E-S changed 200 lines of code"

If you remove Arsenal, then we'll just have LTK 24/7 servers. The main problem is we don't have veteran server owners. We have newbies that have created an environment where they prefer to create "fun mode" servers than standard game play.

Really, same thing happens to a lot of older games - active servers get whittled down to a few "custom" ones, even though the 'good' ones are still alive, but the custom ones with players in them are often the ones that wreck the balance, add in silly features, stick to one game mod like arsenal, etc.

It's up to the players that DON'T enjoy that to sort of figure out a regular time when enough can log on and start up one of the "good," traditional servers and get it active... and stick to it. Not an easy thing to do at all... but I have seen it done.

I'll give you an example... in Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Spearhead, which is now like 16 years old, there's only 2-3 active servers left that always have people in them. And they're all AWFUL - modded weapons, extra guns, insane gravity, stupid stuff that wrecks the game and is nothing like the original that was so much fun. But they're the active ones...

However, there's still some "traditional" servers that get the old-school, classic gamers and people who used to do tournaments and stuff (rifles only, TDM, etc.) - but you have to know what time they're active. There's one server I like to play in that's literally only active from 1:30 to 4:30 a.m. EST every day, which sucks for me because I can rarely play, but every time I do hop in there, it's the same group of 9-10 players who have found that "niche" of a classic server.

How do we do that in GE:Source with the current player population? I don't know... maybe it starts here on the forums? Figure out who likes certain game types, then have regular times that a bunch of people who like those games types log on? Pick a couple of servers, and everyone knows THOSE are the servers to go to on say, Friday night after 8 p.m., and once we get in a routine, you can always bet on knowing when/where to go to find a non-arsenal/non-LTK game?

No easy answer to this problem... but it's not unique to this mod, that's for sure.

We usually play every weekend on my server by saying it on my Discord a few minutes or hours before, normally gets the server full for a while. It's also easy to get a match going if you say it randomly any time of the day usually, same when I'm stremaing it gets full.

So at least for us there's no issue on playing real modes as we simply call a few people to start up a game, the issue is that the rest of the community won't shift towards it.

The reason Arsenal/LTK are so popular is because people like them, otherwise they wouldn't fill the severs. Removing these out of spite would probably not only drive them away if that's all they play it for, but it would do little to bring other people back. We won't magically have full servers by removing them, we'd probably have even less logging on than we do now. If there's enough demand for other game modes, they'd fill the severs with or without the 24/7 Arsenals. If they're not doing it now, it's not going to start by limiting their options. Removing these will likely kill the mod altogether. I'd rather have those servers running than having to play with bots everytime I go in. It's a problem with no easy solution, but kneejerk decisions will be the death of it. Better to let them have their fun in the meantime and figure something else out. The problem isn't the popular modes, but the lack of demand for anything else.

As said again, let it rest. The emotion of playing these two only will die out and they will think "Hmm... Does this mod have more than these two modes?"; Moreover, when this happens, be sure to welcome them with open arms to other fun things *cough*cough*GunTrade*cough*cough*

As said again, let it rest. The emotion of playing these two only will die out and they will think "Hmm... Does this mod have more than these two modes?"; Moreover, when this happens, be sure to welcome them with open arms to other fun things *cough*cough*GunTrade*cough*cough*

>.>

From past experience, this isn't true - in many other FPS games, the unsavory modes dominate and kill off the other modes. And in any event, this has been a problem for over a year now, dating back to just a couple months after the 5.0 release, during which time it has gotten progressively worse and more noticeable on a night to night basis.

Removing them isn't a solution as Spry said, but I don't agree with what you said about other modes having no demand.Most of times it goes like this:

1- New player downloads GE:S for the first time2- Launches the game, opens the server browser3- Looks for servers with people or simply arrange by population4- Joins any server without reading the name, mode or anything5- Plays.

It just takes a few players to get a server full, if those servers got a tiny enough community to have that, they have all the new players on their servers in just a few minutes. It doesn't mean there's no demand for other modes, it means they don't know better.

If there's one thing I've learned from a couple years of being a supporter and gamer on this mod, it's that these things take time, due to the nature of its development by volunteers... but are always well worth the wait.

Removing them isn't a solution as Spry said, but I don't agree with what you said about other modes having no demand.Most of times it goes like this:

1- New player downloads GE:S for the first time2- Launches the game, opens the server browser3- Looks for servers with people or simply arrange by population4- Joins any server without reading the name, mode or anything5- Plays.

It just takes a few players to get a server full, if those servers got a tiny enough community to have that, they have all the new players on their servers in just a few minutes. It doesn't mean there's no demand for other modes, it means they don't know better.

Well, I actively chose to play Arsenal and stuck with it, to each its own I guess.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for that reduced player limit. That's been the deterrent for me for a while. Having only 1 populated server that's always an overcrowded mess was killing it for me. Maybe now we can have 2 populated servers!

Well, SuperFlyMenace, I think at this stage in the mod's lifespan, these ".1" updates tend to be pretty big and cover a lot of territory - bigger than the ".1" suggests. I'm sure when it's polished and ready to be released, we'll all be blown away and it will be well worth the wait. Just look at how different 5.0 was from what came before it, and how that took off and drew so many new people into this community (myself included). Whether the next release happens a month from now... or another year, I'll still be playing every week just the same! #GESRocks